


When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:27:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Matt tries to cheer Karen up when she's sad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by

Everyone seems to be taking her and Arthur’s departure very differently, Karen thinks. Arthur is as level as he as ever been. Matt’s manic. 

She swings from sad to happy, and some days she’s bright and cheerful, and other days, like today, she feels like crap and that getting out of bed is far too much. 

She curls up in her little chair on set, watching Matt do some filming, and sighs. She just wants to go home and sleep for ages and ages, even though there are things she needs to do like prepare for auditions and eat dinner. 

Matt’s done filming, and so he prances up to her, giraffe-like as always, and claps her on the shoulder. 

“Kazza!” He yells. 

She gives him a withering look. There are days where she can play off of his energy, but today is not one of them. 

“Kaz, what’s wrong?” He asks. Matt can go from bouncy to sad puppy in about a nanosecond, and that’s something she’s always found interesting about him. 

“Just… stuff, Matt,” she says. “I don’t know, I’m just having an off day today.” 

“Oh.” He sits in the chair besides hers and doesn’t say anything for a few minutes.

“You know, I’m only friends with twenty-five letters of the alphabet. I don’t know why.” 

It takes her a few seconds, but she rolls her eyes when she finally understands it. 

“Really?” He says. “Nothing?” 

She shakes her head. 

“Fine, let’s try this one. Two muffins are in an oven. One muffin turns to the other muffin and says, ‘Gee, it’s really hot in here,’ and the other muffin gets scared and says ‘Aaah! It’s a talking muffin!’.” 

“I’m not in the mood for puns today, Matt.” She turns away from him and contemplates whether this break from filming will last long enough for her to go back to her trailer and have a nap. 

“Is that possible?” He looks at her, and then says, “I suppose it is. I shall have to resort to desperate measures to cheer you up.” 

“Okay, Matt.” 

* * *

It turns out the desperate measures are actually worse than the puns, mostly because it involves the damn badger puppet. Karen thought Charlie had perhaps gone back to London, but nope, he lives on in Matt’s trailer. 

And now, Charlie has become the badger zombie that is chasing Karen around the lot, and it’s kind of thrilling until she trips and falls and curses her gangly limbs. 

“Jesus Christ,” she says, groaning as she tries to get back up. Man, these were her favourite jeans, and now there’s a wonderful hole in them  and a distinct throbbing in her left ankle. Curse those gangly limbs. Actually, curse the man-child chasing her around with the zombie-badger-puppet-thing. 

Matt rounds the corner and sees Karen lying on the ground, gasps, and runs towards her. 

“Ohmygod are you okay?” He says, and helps her to get up. 

“No more zombie badger tag,” Karen says, and winces when she puts too much weight on her ankle. “I don’t think I’ll survive another bout.” She slings one of her arms around his shoulder, and he helps her over to his trailer. 

“This isn’t cheering me up,” she says, as he helps her over to his couch.  

“I’m so sorry, Kaz,” he says, and then, “here, prop your foot up on this table.”

“Why?” 

“Elevating sprains make them better quicker,” he says, and then pops open a cabinet and pulls out some plasters to put on Karen’s scraped knee. 

He applies them with such care and tenderness that it makes her almost not angry at him for causing her to trip and fall in the first place. He pulls out some frozen peas from the freezer (‘Why in god’s name do you have frozen peas in here, Matt?’ ‘Because they make good icepacks and I fall over a lot, okay?’), wraps them in a tea towel, and places them on her ankle. 

“Tea?” He asks, and she nods. 

He puts the kettle on, and sets out a plate of biscuits for her as well. 

“No Jammie Dodgers?” Karen asks, mock-shocked. 

Matt shakes his head. “They were out of them, can you believe it? You’re going to have to deal with Jaffa Cakes for now.” 

She gratefully accepts the cookies, and he sits down beside her as they wait for the kettle to finish. He puts an arm around her shoulder, like he’s always done when they’re watching a movie together at her flat or his flat, and rests her head on his shoulder, and this is what cheers her up. Right now, this is their own little island, and Matt’s not being crazy and she doesn’t feel the kind of digging sadness that she had felt earlier, and she feels peaceful.

He gets up and grabs them their tea, and he knows exactly how she likes it so he doesn’t ask as he’s preparing it. 

She smiles when he hands it to her. “Thanks, Smithers.”

He beams. “Was that a smile?” 

“Yes, that absolutely was a smile.” 


End file.
